Digital Commons Network^™

Tacting Of Function In College Student Mental Health: An Online And App-Based Approach To Psychological Flexibility, Benjamin Pierce

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mental and emotional health concerns among college students are prevalent and diverse in their symptom presentations. With increasing demands on counseling centers to provide efficient care and to address students with higher acuity or risk for harm, there has been an increased focus on identifying therapeutic targets that underlie a wide breadth of concerns to broaden the scope and impact of mental health services. Psychological inflexibility is one such target and refers to a combination of excessive avoidance of internal experiences coupled with a lack of actions that align with a person’s values. Interventions for psychological inflexibility aim to support …

Activity Tracker Measurement Of Physical Activity And Sedentary Time In The Workplace Including An Intervention Involving Reminders To Move, Cassie Dance

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sedentary time and physical inactivity have negative impacts on health and health costs as well as an impact on workplace wellbeing. There is evidence that people are more sedentary and engage in less physical activity on work days. Additionally, sedentary behavior has been found to increase distress and negative mood. Activity trackers such as Fitbits are a useful way to collect and intervene on sedentary behavior and potentially impact other factors of workplace wellbeing in real time and promote self-monitoring. The reminder to move prompts that are now part of Fitbit models provide an innovative and simple way to intervene …

Relationship Maintenance Behaviors And Marital Stability In Remarriage: The Examination Of Stepfamily Constellations And Associated Challenges, Ron C. Bean

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research on stepfamily life in the 21^st century reveals unexplored variables at every turn. This is important because around half of American adults report close step-relationships and the challenges and demographic and relational differences for different types of stepfamilies remains unexplored. The first of these studies explored data for 879 husbands and wives couples to explore how positivity, negativity, and sexual interest levels differ depending which of the couple, both partners, or neither had previous children. Wives reported higher levels of marital instability and positivity than husbands. Marital instability was linked with one’s own and one’s partners’ negativity, and …

Konaway Nika Tillicum Native American Youth Academy: Cultural Identity, Self-Esteem, And Academic Optimism, Tamara Barrett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Through using a Positive Youth Development framework and culturally based education program, Konaway Nikka Tillicum Native American Youth Academy aspires to mentor and prepare Native youth through high school and on to higher education. This collaborative research partnership investigated cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism of Native American youth attending the academy. The results of this program evaluation found that cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism were all closely related to each other as well as that they increased significantly when measured before and after the academy. GPA was found to not be predictive of cultural identity, self-esteem, or academic …

Responding To Microaggressions: Evaluation Of Bystander Intervention Strategies, Tianyi Xie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ethnic minorities often experience microaggressions that cause psychological distress and increase health risks. Bystander interventions are good ways to intervene when microaggressions take place and provide emotional support for ethnic minority targets. White interveners and interventions that pose low threats to White aggressors are perceived more positively than ethnic minority interveners and interventions that are more confrontational and direct. Furthermore, a support-based intervention that validates White aggressors’ good intention and effort without judgement may help White aggressors feel less defensive and more receptive to the intervention. Asian Americans face unique microaggressive themes and their racial experiences are influenced by the …

Technology In Parenting Programs: A Systematic Review And Pilot Study Of An App-Based Intervention For Latinx Families, Samantha M. Corralejo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Technology and psychological treatments have increasingly been used together to increase the reach of psychotherapy and potentially reduce treatment costs. This research focused on how technology has been used to deliver or facilitate treatments focused on behavioral parent training. Behavioral parent training is a research-supported method of improving parenting skills and child behavior. We first reviewed any existing research on the topic, and found that treatments that used technology to teach parenting skills were generally successful at improving parent and child behavior. The review also identified many research questions that have yet to be answered about the cost of such …

Parent Knowledge Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kandice J. Benallie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Parent knowledge of ASD may be relevant to early identification and intervention services for children with ASD. By understanding how knowledgeable parents of young children are about ASD, researchers and practitioners can intervene and educate this population. This study sought to determine the knowledge base of ASD among parents with children five years and younger and if developmental, behavioral, and autism-related concerns predict knowledge of ASD. The sample of parents consisted of 167 mothers and fathers. All participants completed a knowledge questionnaire (i.e., ASKSG) and reported their level of developmental, behavioral, and autism-related concerns of their oldest child between the …

Treatment Of Clinical Perfectionism Using Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Clarissa W. Ong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Clinical perfectionism is characterized by rigidly pursuing unrealistically high standards on which self-worth is contingent and experiencing distress when these standards are not met. Because clinical perfectionism is associated with many psychological diagnoses, understanding how to treat it may help streamline available treatments. The aim of this dissertation was to test the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a cognitive-behavioral therapy, on 53 individuals with clinical perfectionism. Participants in the ACT group received 10 therapy sessions and those in the control group were on a waitlist for 14 weeks. The first study supported the effectiveness of ACT relative to …

Physiological, Behavioral, And Self-Report Outcomes Of Acceptance And Regulation Approaches To Exposures For Intrusive Thoughts, Brooke M. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cognitive-behavioral therapy that includes exposure, or intentionally and systematically confronting feared situations, is the gold standard psychological treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, less than half of those who begin this treatment are considered to have recovered from their disorder at the end of treatment, and this number is even smaller in the months following the end of treatment. Leading theories regarding how treatment changes occur focus on reducing fear, and they do not include “voluntary” (i.e., operant) behaviors, such as avoidance, that are key features of the disorder. Acceptance-based approaches to exposure do not focus on fear reduction, but directly …

Dementia Caregiver Coping Strategies And Caregiver-Care Recipient Relationship Closeness: Associations With Care-Recipient Outcomes, Stephanie Behrensberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This project used data from the Dementia Progression Study, a longitudinal, population-based study based out of Cache County, Utah. Statistical models were used to examine the association between caregiver factors, the care environment, and cognitive outcomes in persons with dementia. Mediational analyses were also used to examine if the care environment, inferred for nutritional status, engagement in physical and cognitively stimulating activities, mediated the relationship between the closeness/caregiver coping strategies and cognition in persons with dementia. Results showed that closer caregiver-care recipient relationships were associated with better nutritional status and more engagement in number of cognitively stimulating activities as well …

Depression Mediates The Association Of Disordered Eating Behaviors And Sexual Function In Female Service Members And Veterans, Whitney S. Livingston

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Poor sexual function is comprised of diminished sexual desire and arousal, presence of sexual pain, inability to reach orgasm, and low satisfaction. Worse sexual function is associated with disordered eating behavior; however, the mechanism through which this association exists remains unclear. Theory of sexual function suggests that depression mediates the association of disordered eating behaviors and poor sexual function in female service members and veterans, but this has yet to be tested empirically. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether depression mediated the association of disordered eating behaviors and sexual dysfunction.

Participants (N=511) were partnered …

Resurgence Of Cocaine-Seeking In Rats Following Long Access And Punishment, Rusty W. Nall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Strategies that provide access to alternative non-drug rewards are among the most effective at reducing substance use in individuals with substance use disorders, but relapse often occurs when alternative rewards are removed. Relapse induced by the loss of alternative rewards is called resurgence, and represents a challenge to otherwise effective strategies for reducing drug use. An animal model has been useful for studying resurgence, but the extant model has two limitations. First, humans usually refer to the negative consequences of drug use as the reason they stop taking drugs, but the extant model uses drug unavailability to reduce drug seeking. …

Examining The Effects Of Familism On The Association Between Parent-Adolescent Conflict, Emotion Regulation, And Internalizing Problems Among Latinx Adolescents, Kenia Carrera

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Latinx adolescents report higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms (i.e., internalizing symptoms) compared to other ethnic groups. Research studies primarily conducted with European American youth have concluded that difficulties in emotion regulation and parent-adolescent conflict are associated with an increased risk for youth internalizing symptoms. Additionally, an important Latinx cultural value, familism, has been identified as a protective factor for internalizing symptoms for Latinx adolescents. Therefore, the current study examined how familism, parent-adolescent conflict, and difficulties in emotion regulation interact to influence the development of internalizing symptoms among Latinx adolescents. It was hypothesized that (a) parent-adolescent conflict and difficulties …

A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Combining Multitrait-Multimethod Designs With Moderated Mediation Analysis, Kaylee Litson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Researchers who study clinical and developmental psychology are often interested in answering questions such as how interventions work, when treatment begins to improve health outcomes, or for whom treatment has the greatest impact. Answers to these and similar questions impact the general understanding of health and behavior, and can be imperative for effectively implementing intervention and prevention programs. To evaluate such complex relationships among variables, researchers have turned to moderated mediation analysis. Moderated mediation analysis is a statistical tool used to identify the conditional processes among observed or latent variables. However, in developmental and clinical psychology, variables are regularly measured …

“Get Tough!”: A Case Study On The Development Of The Sport Ethic In Youth Lacrosse, Ross Budziszewski

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

While participation in youth sport is often linked with positive psychosocial and physical outcomes (Holt et al., 2017), this context can also cultivate ideals that lead to the development of unethical beliefs as well as unsafe sport practices (Al-Yaarbi & Kavussanu, 2017). The sport ethic is described as the deviant overconformity by an athlete to fit societal expectations of a sport’s high-performance culture (Hughes & Coakley, 1991). Strong beliefs in the sport ethic can lead to moral disengagement, antisocial behavior, and viewing sport like warfare (Shields, Funk, & Bredemeier, 2015). Although the sport ethic has been examined in competitive adult …

Exploring The Impact Of Positive Peer Views Of Girls On School Engagement In Middle School Girls, Christine E. Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused on the types of messages female middle school students receive about their gender from their peers. Specifically, it looked at microaggressions, which are sexist messages from peers, and microaffirmations, which are positive and affirming messages from peers. There were four goals of this study. First, to check if the Students Affirming Girls in Middle School scale (SAG-MS), a scale created for this study, could consistently measure microaggressions and microaffirmations. Second, to look at the relationship between when girls experience puberty and microaggressions and microaffirmations. Third, to measure any differences in the number of microaggressions and microaffirmations girls …

Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd): Relationship Between Parental Symptomatology, Child Behaviors, And Parenting Behaviors, Robyn Jeppson-Frandsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience impairment in cognitive, scholastic/vocational and interpersonal domains. The goal of this study was to gain more information how adult ADHD symptomatology impacts parenting behaviors, specifically, overreactivity and laxness. This study found that parental ADHD symptoms were associated with greater overreactive parenting behavior. Differences between mothers and fathers were assessed and no significant difference in ADHD symptomatology or parenting behaviors were found. The combination of adult ADHD symptoms and child behavior, above and beyond parental depression, was found to be a statistically significant predictor of parental overreactive behavior, while this was not the case for …

Narrative Identities Of Early-Return Missionaries From The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Jillian Ferrell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Leaving home to become a missionary is important for many young adults in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (CJC). Some missionaries return home from their missions before their anticipated return date and struggle to make sense of who they are while facing judgment from members within the church communities and families. Little is known about the experience of identity development for early return missionaries (ERMs). There have not been many chances for ERMs to share what it means to them to have come home early from their mission. This study investigated the process of how ERMs make …

Youth Prevention Programs: A Framework For Conducting Mediation Meta-Analyses, Morgan A. Kawamura

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Often for prevention program designs, researchers are interested in understanding the processes through which a program impacts a targeted outcome. Mediation analysis assists in identifying not only how a program influences an outcome, but also which intermediate variables (i.e., mediators) cause the effects between a program and an outcome to occur. Mediation analysis explains why a program works, which is useful for program developers in creating effective prevention and intervention-based programs.

To make use of mediation analysis findings for preventive intervention programs, researchers need a comprehensive understanding of the mediators between various programs and outcomes. However, a comprehensive examination into …

Experience Of Microaggressions: White Bystanders’ Physiological And Psychological Reactions, Alexandra K. Reveles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The negative impacts of discriminatory events to the physiological and psychological stress of the recipient has been thoroughly documented. However, there is little to no evidence about the impacts to bystanders of these events, particularly White bystanders. Psychological impacts may emerge through academic achievement, which has implications for educational institutions and their diversity initiatives. This study examined the impact of witnessing discriminatory events on academic achievement, biological markers of distress, and emotional distress.

Academic achievement was negatively impacted for participants in the microaggression and blatant racism conditions when compared to a control condition. Study participants also experienced negative emotional impacts. …

The Use Of A Values Affirming Intervention: Does It Impact Math Scores And Semester Grade Point Averages In A Student Support Services Population, Amy L. Debruler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

College students who are from low income families, have disabilities, or are the first in their family to attend college are more likely to struggle socially and academically in a college setting. Promoting college graduation within these disadvantaged populations is critical for increased life wellness. Previous researchers studied to see if when students wrote about their personal beliefs if it would lead to higher levels of academic confidence and better academic performance (as measured by grades). This study expanded upon those previous studies to look specifically at whether a values-affirming writing intervention provided to at risk students in a federally …

Religiosity, Perfectionism, And Parenting Practices In A Latter-Day Saint (Lds) Sample, Trisha Chase

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Parenting practices greatly influence child behavior. It is important to study the relationship between parenting practices and child behavior in specific religious contexts. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) have not been extensively studied in the psychological literature despite there being a relatively large number of LDS individuals in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of religiosity on parenting practices and child behavior outcomes in an LDS sample. The influence of perfectionism on religiosity and parenting practices was also studied. The relationship between parents’ interpretation of the bible and …